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Relationships within midwifery

Abstract:

On 5 August, 1987, several hundred midwives and consumers attended a conference in Auckland where the keynote speaker, Caroline Flint, an English midwife, asked us to participate in a short, guided visualisation of ourselves as women. Caroline asked us to close our eyes and feel how unique we are as individuals, how strong we are as women, and the miracle of the conception, growth and birth of a child through ourselves as women. We were then asked to open our eyes and be together as midwives and women. Since 1987 the politics of control over childbirth have undergone dramatic change. The 1990 Nurses' Amendment Act has liberated midwives from the control of doctors and with this liberation has come uncertainy, stress and conflict. We seem to have closed our eyes and separated into our own isolated areas of work. This division causes severe problems for our profession and the women we are here to serve. The purpose of my writing is to discuss the effect that the recent legislation has had on midwives' relationships with one another and ultimately with the women. I will look at where we are historicdally within this culture of rapid change and suggest ways of altering our behaviour to enable us to truly work to support and sustain one another.

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